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EPHRAIM — A man who allegedly made a threat after becoming frustrated while playing an online game to conduct a mass school shooting was arrested Monday after his alleged actions put law enforcers in three counties on alert.
The 18-year-old man was booked into the Sanpete County Jail for investigation of making a threat of terrorism.
On Monday, just before 1 p.m., police at Snow College were notified by the Utah County Major Crimes Task Force that the suspect "had made a comment on an online game he was going to shoot up a school," according to a police booking affidavit.
Investigators traced the IP address from which the comment was made to Ephraim, the affidavit states.
According to a statement from Nephi Police Chief Michael Morgan, he was also notified by dispatchers about the same time of the effort to locate the suspect, who "made direct violent threats to two separate high schools that are located in the south area of Utah County."
As the school resource officer for Nephi police gathered additional information, "It was then relayed that the same suspect had also made violent threats toward Snow College, which is in Sanpete County," Morgan stated.
It was then decided to put all Juab District schools on "lock out," which Morgan says is different from a "lock down." In a lock out, he said students can still move freely about their schools, but the front doors are secured and no one is allowed in or out.
Nephi police officers and troopers from the Utah Highway Patrol were sent to each school in Juab County as a precaution, even though "there was no information of any threats being made to any Juab School District buildings," Morgan stated, while also noting the schools that were threatened are close to Juab County.
The suspect was located by Snow College police just after 2 p.m. When questioned, he "admitted he stated that he was going to shoot up a school. He admits he did it while upset about something that happened in the game. He claims he doesn't support that type of behavior and he is sad he said what he did," the affidavit states.
The man's car, backpack and apartment were searched and no guns were found, according to the affidavit.
